Wednesday, July 11, 2012

MOUNTAIN LION ...REVISITED

So when I had my first mountain lion encounter this year, I heard only the growls and rustling in the brush near the road we were walking on. Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate revisiting the mountain lion adventure.
A group of us was hiking near Prospect Or on a trail near town. Prospect is just a dot in the road with a great old hotel, a trailer park, pizza parlor and store, not much else of interest except the waterfalls and Rogue River just down a trail outside of town.
Because of spring run off, the waterfalls we had seen during our trip were spectacular and this hike did not disappoint. We had just passed the falls and just finished a conversation about how he hadn't seen any wildlife except a couple of lizards and lots of birds.

Armed and ready to go.

Whew, we made it

My sister and I looked up the trail and some movement. I could see what it was, but it appeared to be proudly walking with cat-like movements right on the trail we were walking on. It was headed away from us. As it turned a corner, we had a side on view of a mostly full-grown mountain lion.
No, no picts to prove, because at this point we were backing to to join the rest of the group. My cousin who is 6'4" and live in Bend said "Really?" there are so many people around here. "Yes" really and there are hardly any people here.
We took the walk loudly and carry a big stick approach to finishing our hike. My cousin and his 84 year old mom took the lead. Tricia, Jenni and I followed then, yelling stomping and carrying the biggest tree limb we could find.
Anybody want to go for a hike?